Poland’s Leaders March With Far-Right Groups on Independence Day

WARSAW, Poland — It was meant to foster unity and celebrate the sacrifices of past generations in the creation of the modern Polish nation. But after days of wrangling and controversy, the country’s Independence Day celebration Sunday ended up highlighting Poland’s deep divisions.

President Andrzej Duda and senior members of the government walked at the front of a state-sponsored procession through the streets of Warsaw behind a huge red-and-white Polish flag with an inscription “For you, Poland.”

And Duda told the crowd that “this march should unite all Poles,” adding, “Let this march be for everyone.”

But hundreds of yards behind the officials from the governing Law and Justice Party were far-right activists known for promoting racist, homophobic and supremacist slogans.

Wreathed in an eerie red mist from burning flares, thousands of nationalists chanted: “Use a sickle, use a hammer, smash the Red rabble.” Some shouted: “White Poland.”

They marched holding a banner with the slogan “God, Honor, Fatherland” and thousands of Polish flags. But some wore balaclavas and waved the green flags of the ultranationalist group National Revival of Poland. Also visible were the flags of Forza Nuova, an Italian neofascist group.

No members of the opposition or leading public figures who are not close to the government attended the event, which the police said attracted 250,000 people, and which critics said was a surrendering of Independence Day to radical groups.

The procession — one of scores of events across Europe to mark the 100 years since the end of World War I — followed days of legal turmoil after the mayor of Warsaw banned the Independence March organized every year by far-right groups. Among them are the National Radical Camp, which human rights activists have for years said should be made illegal.

The march, which in previous years involved violent clashes with police, made international headlines last year when demonstrators chanted, “Pure Poland, white Poland,” and “Refugees, get out!” and a small group of hard-liners carried banners with the slogan “White Europe of brotherly nations.”

The organizers challenged the mayor’s ban, and a Warsaw court eventually sided with them, calling the decision “preventive censorship.” Before that ruling was handed down, however, officials decided to hold a state procession in place of the Independence March, prompting more anger from nationalists.

The far-right groups and government eventually agreed to walk together in one procession divided into two parts — one for the officials, and one for the nationalists.

Despite earlier concerns, Sunday’s march was a peaceful affair.

But Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist at the Polish Academy of Science, called it a “bad sign.” The nationalist government, he said, now finds itself trapped by the radical groups after years of “flirting with them.”

“As a citizen, I’m indignant that the authorities were incapable of forcing the nationalists to give up their own banners and stick to Polish flags only,” Rychard said. “I also don’t understand how it happened that the nationalists, who are politically irrelevant, have become an equal partner for the government.”

The increasingly euroskeptic governing party, which has fallen out with the European Union over the party’s attempts to take control of Poland’s independent judiciary, became the first member of the bloc to set off a process that could see the country lose its voting rights.

Political divisions also marred the official ceremony earlier on Sunday at Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square, named after Gen. Jozef Pilsudski, one of the fathers of Poland’s independence.

The top delegation at the event was led by Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the head of Law and Justice, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. But Donald Tusk — president of the European Council, a former prime minister and a fierce of opponent of the government — stood at back, barely visible, seemingly distancing himself from the politicians from the conservative governing party.

“I know that we often argue about the shape of our country. I know that sometimes we do it too intensely,” Tusk said as he addressed the crowd. “Forgive us, Poland.”

Krystyna Skarzynska, a professor of psychology at Warsaw University, said the dynamic of the ceremony reflected “pettiness and hypocrisy” in the leading politicians’ remarks.

“They’ve been talking us to death about this need for unity, but they didn’t even welcome Donald Tusk during the ceremony,” she said in an interview. “They didn’t mention Lech Walesa, who had played a great role in Poland’s independence, either.”

Walesa, a former president and the iconic leader of the Solidarity social movement, has for years been a fervent critic of the Law and Justice Party and refused to celebrate the anniversary with the government.